문화차이에 따른 서비스 품질 지각수준 차이에 관한 연구

A wide range of research has been conducted and shown that the perception of service quality can differ depending on the culture that the consumers are a part of and the reason for such difference is inferred to be the difference in the process that the consumers perceive service quality in their culture. Such findings suggest that Korean corporations that are internationally active need to establish appropriate marketing strategies by recognizing cultural differences. Internationally active Korean corporations must analyze the consumer characteristics of their target countries by gaining an accurate understanding of their cultural characteristics and provide customized services. This thesis aims to evaluate the influence cultures have on marketing by comparing the difference in service quality perception of Korean and North American consumers. The results of this research generally indicate a high level of influence by culture on perception of service quality. As the cultural difference between Korea and North America has an element of relativity, consumer behavior can be estimated to differ depending on the relative cultural difference between the two countries. Thus cultural homogeneity represents a level of standardization whereas heterogeneity represents differentiation or localization. Firstly, a difference in perception of service quality was verified to be caused by cultural differences. The reason why North American consumers generally rate service quality highly is because they rate the value of received products and services higher than Korean consumers. Secondly, the level of influence that each dimension of service quality has on customer satisfaction is proven to differ between Korea and North America. When considering the importance of service quality in relation to customer satisfaction, the dimension that played the biggest role in determining the satisfaction level of Korean consumers was 'reliability' followed by 'tangibles', 'responsiveness', 'empathy' and 'assurance'. Such results show that the dimension of 'reliability' is the most importance to Korean consumers. On the other hand, North American consumers were seen to value 'empathy' the most, followed by 'tangibles','reliability', and 'responsiveness'. Thus it is recommended that service providers form localized customer satisfaction strategies by distinguishing the difference in service quality perception caused by such cultural differences and provide service qualities customized for difference cultural groups.